Running back Jonathan Cancienne leads Comet offense with 244 yards rushing

By JOHNNY PEPPO

Sports Editor

St. Charles defense continues to be a strength as they proved again last Friday when the Comets held Donaldsonville to negative yards of total offense for the first half on their way to a 35-8 district opening victory. The win keeps SCC undefeated for the season going into their next game, a home stand against John Curtis.

&#8220The defense really came through in this one,” St. Charles coach Frank Monica said. &#8220We came in hoping to keep [the Donaldsonville] players contained because they have so much speed on offense. But our guys did a great job for us. They really rose to the occasion every time we needed them tonight.”

It got started when the Comets made it down to the red zone for the only score of the first quarter. The drive stalled out and Monica sent kicker Chris Ilski out to attempt a 41-yard field goal, which he did for a 3-0 lead.

St. Charles looked for a bigger lead when they drove all the way to the goal line before Donaldsonville’s defense managed to take the ball over on downs. But from there, the Tiger offense was unable to do anything and the resulting punt was blocked in the end zone. SCC’s Steve Graver recovered for the touchdown which made it 10-0 after the Ilski extra point.

The Comets scored again before halftime on a 3-yard pass from quarterback Philip Sutton to wide receiver Matt Ericksen to go into the break ahead 17-0. Matt Walters opened scoring in the second half with a 13-yard TD run to bring it to 24-0.

Donaldsonville then showed some life on the offensive side of the ball with a 70-yard gain on a touchdown reception by the Tiger’s Champlain Babin. But SCC’s Jonathan Cancienne answered back with a touchdown run covering three of his 244 total yards rushing, 153 of which came in the second half of play. His touchdown was the final score of the night as neither team scored in the fourth quarter leaving the Comets with a 35-8 win.

Defensively, SCC held a potent Donaldsonville offense to three first downs and 114 total yards. They intercepted three passes and forced three fumbles, recovering two. The eight points scored by Donaldsonville is just the third time that the SCC defense has been scored on this season, all of which were second half touchdowns once the game was already decidedly in hand.

But that Comet defense will be going up against the nationally-ranked, district 10-2A John Curtis Patriots this Friday in LaPlace. Curtis is coming off of a 41-3 win against Choctawahatchee of Florida, which was preceded by a 28-14 win over the consensus best high school team in the country in Hoover, Alabama.

Coach Monica knows what he has on his hands after leading his team twice against Curtis last season, the second of which was in Shreveport for the state title.

&#8220Those guys are in our district,” he said, &#8220so we know we’re going to see them year in and year out. You just suit up and line up and play the game your scheduled to play. That’s why they call it a game. You never know what might happen.”